| After school always poses a problem for students without numerous hobbies. The addition of anti-loitering laws only help to rub salt in the open wound of boredom. Still, the city has shops, and one such shop opens it's doors to slouching, driveless burnouts everywhere.
The comic shop.
Then again it also opens Its doors to people like Noah. Nice enough, still years away from being a total burnout, and without any real direction through his day to day life.
The bell overhead chimes lazily as he pushes through the door, his board giving a small push as he rolls by a reluctantly watching shop owner. The teen keeps his hands in his pockets as he moves, though a small nod to the older man earns a smile, one that sends Noah on toward the newest releases.
Perhaps five or six minutes after Noah's entered and had time to browse the newest releases and do whatever else he might have planned, here, the door chimes lazily again, and in walks someone approximately his age. A girl.
Gone are the days when comic shops were bastions of male social misfits - these days there are blockbuster movies like X-Men, the Avengers, and Iron Man which draw people from all corners of life. So seeing a girl in a comic shop isn't the jaw-dropping hold-the-presses awkward moment that it used to be.
Still, it's obvious from the way she enters slowly, meanders off to one side, and takes a long look around with a lost look on her face that this particular girl has never been in a comic shop, before.
Noah is indeed done browsing the newest prints, and judging by the way he rolls out of the row empty handed, he's hardly impressed with the selection. He even sends a less amused quirk of a brow toward the older man behind the counter. Clearly the man is just as impressed as Noah, ho gets a returned shrug of the older man's shoulders. It's all a moot points. Noah pushes on toward the back of the shop, his attention sliding over toward the misplace Asian. Familiar? She is, so she gets a small wave.
The skateboard sure gets the girl's attention, and she can't help but stare at it - you don't usually see them being used indoors, after all! When the boy on the skateboard waves, the girl waves, back, and gives him a slightly embarrassed smile, still looking rather lost. She tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear and then ventures slowly into the shop, her head swiveling this way and that. "Uh... hey," she says a bit belatedly toward Noah's back. "Um..."
Noah chuckles at the mousy demeanor. "S'up?" He's never been the most verbose boy in school. He's not a jock or an A-Lister, just the quiet boy that reads through breaks and wears his hood up to often. Still, Noah sends her a grin as he watches her. "You look lost. You okay?"
"Yeah," the girl says. Then she scrunches her face and shakes her head. "I mean, I'm not lost, I //am// okay." She gives him a nervous little grin. "I, like, need to find a birthday present for my brother," she tells him. "And I guess he likes the Avenger...s?" She draws out the S on the end, like she's not quite sure if it belongs there. "So, I thought I'd get him a comic or something. Do you... think you could help me out?" she asks him, giving him her best Bambi eyes. "He's going to be seventeen."
Noah chuckles yet again, but he nods easily, "Yeah, Avengers." He even motions toward a poster on the far wall displaying Thor and Captain America. "I thought all girls were hung up on superheroes now." He gives a small glance back toward the comics. "Well...is he hard core, or is he a sheep?" he pauses, "I mean...did he just get into it? Cause there's the new stuff, and then there's the older stuff which is way better..in my opinion." Again she gets a grin, though he fails in regards to eye-contact, opting instead to look back down again. "But don't so much worry about his age. Most guys stop maturing socially at 7."
The girl shrugs her shoulders. "I dunno," she says noncommittally. "I mean..." she looks at the poster and shrugs again. "Just not my style, or something." She looks faintly offended when Noah asks if her brother is a sheep. "I guess he's been reading comics for a few years, now," she answers. "He and Dad kind of do that together." She laughs a little at his last sentence. "Does that include you?" she asks with an answering grin.
Noah ahs, nodding. "Of course it includes me." He even grins, but she gets only a fleeting flash of that grin before he turns and pushes himself (and the attached board) farther down the isle. "He'd probably like something older then. It's nice to get back into the real storylines before Hollywood over sexualized everything. And before cosplayers..." this gets a small groan from him before he plucks something free of the rack. "This is a pretty good one. I like it. Or Grumpy Old Guy has some really epic ones in a glass case, but he wont let me touch them no matter how much I beg." He grins again, this time to the comic as he begins to flip through it. "Though, I'm still kinda amused about Thor not being your type. You realize that half of the female population of the world just let out a scream of pain when you said that."
The girl laughs a little. "What if he and my dad already have it though?" she wonders, staring at the comic with a bit of a frown. "Crap, I didn't think of that." She sighs and then looks toward the glass case, craning her neck a bit. "Are they really expensive?" she asks. "I've only got like... $30 for his gift." Then she turns to look at him and her eyebrows go up. "So... you think it's funny that I'm not a sheep?" she asks him.
Noah hmms. "Do a gift card. Believe it or not, they have them here." He lifts his voice to carry toward the old man, who gives a low chuckle before he returns to his reading. "And, yeah I guess I do. This city's a proverbial sheep farm chalk full of socially domesticated lame asses trying to be unique like everyone else. Plus, you're not dressed like a slut. So that earns you points."
"This is my twin brother," the girl sighs. "You'd think I'd have a better handle on the stuff he likes." She rolls her eyes at her own ineptitude. "A gift card is a good idea," she agrees with him, and she'll start toward the counter... only to stop and turn back to him. "Thanks, I think?" she says, one eyebrow going down and the other going up, and a half-smile on her lips. "But keep your points to yourself, I don't need them." She grins at him again. "I'm Saya, by the way. I think I've seen you around school, right?"
Noah chuckles, though as she walks away he returns to his rummaging. She manages to get a glance from him that lingers though, "Noah." Which oddly earns a snort from the reading man. "I see you around. Nice to 'meet' you though." Meet maybe a little much, but she got a smile from him, which says a lot. "Good luck with your gift. I'm sure he'll appreciate it. Or at least act like he does."
"Nice to meet you," Saya returns politely. Then she purchases the gift card, gives him one final wave, and leaves the store.
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